2007 Mazda Mazdaspeed3

The simple bolt-on parts have added an admirable amount of performance.

As promised, our bright red, traffic-ticket generator underwent a makeover courtesy of the Mazdaspeed accessory catalog, and I must say that most of us are quite pleased with the results. Let's just say that we've now gained a very effective road-undulation detector during our search for more speed for our Speed3. Our list of modifications was limited to what we could get our hands on specifically through Mazda, which included an adjustable coil-over suspension ($1775) with rear camber-correction links ($250), a cold-air intake with washable filter element ($399), a cat-back sport exhaust ($729) and a set of 18-in. forged aluminum wheels ($550 each) wrapped in 225/40R-18 Falken Azenis RT-615 rubber — an autocrosser's delight.

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Our car now sticks to onramps like Nastia Liukin does her landings. Our engine's turbo-spooling sounds, now more audible than ever, have an addictive quality similar to popping bubblewrap between your fingers. All pleasantries aside, the simple have added an admirable amount of performance, which we have quantified with hard data.

In our , we our stock MS3 on MD Automotive's Dynojet as making 236 wheel-hp and 267 lb.-ft. of torque. Returning to MD, post bolt-ons, we were blown away with the : 260 whp at 5500 rpm and 295 lb.-ft. at 3260 rpm. Mazda makes no power claims with the cat-back exhaust, which means that our power gains came solely from the new intake — talk about bang for the buck! So what does this translate to on the road? Well, our modified 2007 MS3 to the 2008 Mazdaspeed3 tested in this issue, we bested it to 60 mph and the quarter-mile mark by 0.2 second and at a higher trap speed by 2 mph! In fact, our long-term car managed to put up better numbers over stock across the board, which is not always the case as you can see in this month's . Go to view our MS3's and complete performance numbers comparing our car to stock.

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